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Ms. Es

You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on

About Me


GREETINGS FEARLESS COSMONAUTS OF THE THROMBONIC MYSPACE UNIVERSE — FOR YOUR ENLIGHTENMENT AND (ALBEIT) RAGGED SENSE OF SUPERIOR WELL-BEING, AND ENTIRELY CONCEIVED WITHOUT BENEFIT OF ALCOHOL OR THAT WAYWARD AND ELUSIVE MONKEY CALLED SLEEP, A FEW RANDOM NOTES TOWARDS A SKETCHY SELF-PORTRAIT...

Insomniac designer, image compiler*, play-time screen-printer, and lyric fetishist (half-assed writer of same.) Long-winded writer of dross. Formerly grand speller now in steep decline. Aggressively poor strummer-of-guitar. Champion of hound dogs and Boggle dust-ups. Triple-passport packer. Lover of loony alliteration. Progeny of the Irish diaspora. (And therefore) Sometimes contrarian. Mad for the Hammond and the thwaka-thwaka, for staccato trumpet and mellow-toned vibes, for the syncopated and the dissonant, the joyful and bittersweet, all the jazzy and cool and funny and clever idiosyncratic noises that make life richer and more bearable. And for the books, and films, and art, and chums, the layered resonating vissistudes that do the same...

Generalized dilettante. Design whore/addict. Maker of lists!

Was under the misapprehension that my mother had swum the English channel (not, as it turns out) until an embarrassingly advanced age.

What other gripping details can be offered? Tea is required in the morning. Something stronger is often required at night. (Generous donations of double scotch whiskeys, neat, can be forwarded to my company address. Thank you for your considered donation.)

As for the rest: Favourite colors, ethical slant, polyester vs. silk, Fellinni vs. Farrelly, and the best music for a Sunday morn...? It's all context, baby. Well, almost. Of course almost. Not EVERYTHING is relative.

I don't feel we know each other well enough to share my nightmares just yet, but let's just say they involve voluminous balloon curtains of damask, Nickle-fucking-back French kissing Celine Dion in the lurid greenroom of my mind, and completed sets of Hummel figurines. Also homes with wall after wall of sincerely-presented, vaseline-softened wedding photos and adult beds choked with big-eyed stuffed animals. But visually darker. Much, much darker. And cinematic. Some notion of passion usually plays a starring role, in which you see the best of life's scripts ending up on the rejected pile.

NOTES:

"Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

*It's just so louche to say "artist" these days, isn't it? Esp. when one's (re)productivity is comparable to that of a salmon (you know, once, then it's 'curtains'...) [Editor's Note: this is drivel.]



ONE THING I CAN SAY FOR SURE IS, I CAN REALLY COOK IN THE KITCHEN...SEE WHAT I MEAN?



My Interests

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AND NOW, A GRAPHIC RENDERING OF THE PAST YEAR FOR THE READER'S OCULAR PLEASURE. AND BECAUSE WORDS FAIL.

[MORE ON THE LUCID PHANTASMAGORIC WINDMILLS OF MY MIND]...AND SOMETIMES WHEN I AM CAT-NAPPING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY SO THAT MY HEAD FALLS FORWARD ON MY TEAK, EAMES-ERA DESK, AND DROOL SPILLS TANTALIZINGLY FROM BETWEEN MY CADMIUM-STAINED LIPS AND ONTO MY CRUMB-ENCRUSTED KEYBOARD, MY DREAMS LOOK LIKE THIS

AND THIS...

AND THIS...

AND, YES *SIGH*, THIS AS WELL...

CORRECT. THIS TOO IS MY HOUSE. NOW YOU ARE GETTING IT. ALTHOUGH, I AGREE, SPLENDIFEROUS THOUGH IT IS, IT COULD STAND FOR A LITTLE MORE KINK. IT IS A LITTLE AUSTERE. WE WILL GET THERE...BUT IN THE MEANTIME, PLEASE SHUT UP AND LET ME ENJOY MY GIMLET TO THE SOUNDS OF MARTIN DENNY...

Furniture design * Spanish language, las peliculas! (which is to say, films, and lots of them.) * nightmares * Documentaries. Methods of inducing sleep (especially at this moment...) * Hammonds * Horses and, more currently, hounds. Uhmm...I can stand for a bit of political chit-chat and lively conversation among friends * corrosively spicy hot food with a cold lager * EPL football * tools * running * the properties of varnish * The marvels of clever constructions * Exquisite Corpse drawings * Found objects * 70s Playboy Mag ads for men's slacks, stereos and scotch * City and country pleasures * Guilty pleasures * Painting & mixed media * Electic interest in art, literature, music, fiction, travel, interior design blah, blah, blah. Vintage finds at a steal * Things that are 'in tension', that compliment through contrast and counterpoint * the sweet Kharmann Ghia * thumbing dictionaries * (...parenthetical elipses...) * The art of the all-or-nothing-at-all embrace * Farm houses and lofts * The notion that I should be somewhere else [ED. NOTE: CONFIRMED] * Long, impossibly slow snogging is a very good thing...oh, and Thai food, and the ocean and...ok, enough is enough, leave off already! ...Industrial strength chemistry on first sight.

THESE FOLKS LOOK A LITTLE STAID FOR MY LIKING. AS IF THEY ARE DISCUSSING BROWNIE RECIPES FOR THE NEXT CHURCH SOCIAL. I DON'T THINK THEY QUITE FULLY APPRECIATE THEIR SURROUNDINGS. WHEN I TAKE POSSESSION, MY PARTIES WILL BE A LOT MORE SWINGING, PROMISE...

Eichler * Saul Bass * Pierre Koenig * Eva Zeisel * Richard Richard Neutra * Alexander Rodchenko * Louise Bourgeois * Marcel Duchamp * Dieter Rams * Gio Ponti * Charles & Ray Eames * Bradbury Thompson * Joesph Cornell * Dorthea Tanning * Max Ernst * Jean Tinguely * Donigan Cumming * Jean Arp * Oscar Kokoschka * Kate Kollwitz * Egon Schiele * Man Ray * Paul Rand * Herbert Bayer * Eleanor Bond * George Bataille * Susan Sontag * Maurice Merleau-Ponty * John Berger * Unberto Eco * Der Blaue Reiter * Francis Picabia * Jean Cocteau * Eero Saarinen * Sue Coe * William Blake * Kurt Schwitters * Jane Gallop * Sam Shepard * Emmy Hennings * Hugo Ball * Ray Johnson * sangria * old postcards * other people's lost library stubs * natural light * unnatural light * wild raspberries * things faded, decayed, tattered and worn * notes lost & found * the smell of fresh sawdust off a saw blade * swimming nekkid by moonlight * wee hour perambulations ...

I'd like to meet:

Tom Waits' dog.

Look, I can't be too picky now, can I? Oi. Once upon a time, I was practically, yes even tragically, alone in the MySpace crowd. (Past witness laid bare an almost glamourously spare "Friends" area!) Now I am immensely popular with all manner of ne'er do well, fickle, two-bit chumps who recklessly call themselves "Friends" [TM], and I play along with little thought to taste or discrimination. This goes especially for that sorry lot I innocently, if drunkenly, dubbed my (so-called) "Top Friends"...But, alas, if I weren't so evidently desperate for comradery of any ilk, I'd say: creative types; adventurous, funny and kind types (but with some dark corners); intellectually curious types, people who make things, do things, don't languish in front of their telly, and are interested and engaged in the world around them. People who can laugh at themselves. And who like dogs and cats and rats and elephants, and animals of all kinds. Who like a little bit of high, and a whole lotta pop, culture, beer, whiskey and late-night conversation. Oh, and who aren't frightfully politically correct. Or timid. Or prudish. But are instead charmingly playful and somewhat perverse. And have opinions of their own. But are dogmatic about them only after way, way too much whiskey in a manner that is both forgivable and endearing. But I'm not picky.

Cloris Leachman. Of course.

Music:

Peggy Lee (the quintessential "Is That All There Is?" is desert island stuff) * Paolo Conte * Amon Tobin (esp. Permutations)* Billie Holiday * Lynn Miles * The 5,6,7,8’s * Rosemary Clooney * Ella Fitzgerald * Lou Reed * Velvet Underground * Johnny Cash * Black Boot Trio * Piero Umiliani * Ennio Morricone * Henri Mancini * Piero Piccioni * Neil Young * Chemical (& Dust) Brothers * Esquivel * Francoise Hardy * Arthur Lyman * Les Baxter * Bing Crosby * Fela Kuti * Califone * Patti Smith * Junior Wells * Portishead * Tindersticks * Lucinda Williams * Raymond Scott * Patti Smith * Charles Mingus * Curtis Mayfield * Wanda Jackson * Al Green * George Jones * Loretta Lynn * The Boswell Sisters * Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five and Sevens * early Carmen Miranda * The Empiricals * Solomon Burke * Bong Water * Serge Gainsbourg * France Gall * Led Zeppelin * Art Blakey * The Who * Neil Young * Red Allen * Screamin' Jay Hawkins * Sylvie Vartan * Eric Dolphy * Hank Mobley * Hoagy Carmichael * Ornette Coleman * Claudine Longet * Kurt Weill * Lee Morgan * Lucia Pamela * Harry Nilsson * Riz Ortolani * Gert Wilden * John Coltrane * Sonny Rollins * Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra * Sparkle Moore * Martin Denny * Hank Williams * Gram Parsons * Rickie Lee Jones * Pink Floyd * Porter Wagoner * Joni Mitchell * The Shaggs * Alain Bashung * Rolling Stones * Weakerthans [lyrics anyway] * Duke Ellington * Chick Webb * Bob Dylan * Astrud Gilberto * Helen Merril * June Christy * Louis Jordan * Antonio Carlos Jobim * Joao Gilberto * Nick Cave * Beth Gibbons * Julie London * Fleetwood Mac * Nick Drake * Burt Bacharach * Sibylle Baier * The Flaps * Blossom Dearie * Frank Zappa * Clem Snide * Juiliette Greco * Townes Van Zandt * Eric Satie * Isaac Hayes * RL Burnside * Howlin' Wolf * Sonnyboy Williamson * Cab Calloway * Merle Haggard * Lightin' Hopkins * Dolores Gray * Coleman Hawkins * Bjork * Wilco * Arthur H * Chavela Vargas * Hooverphonic * Lefty Frizzell * Rose Maddox * Bettye LaVette * Lhasa * Tom Waits, Tom Waits, Tom Waits * Hawaiian and accordian music, 60s and 70s soundtracks, cabaret, all that jazz that doesn't require jazz hands...and more and more * Whiskey-soaked stone country, but 100% New Country Free (With apologies to Sarah T.)

Movies:


"How do you shave in there? (Charade, 1963)

The Philadelphia Story * Five Easy Pieces * The Conversation * The Ballad of Cable Hogue * Kelly's Heroes * North by Northwest * Blowup * Short Cuts * The Fearless Vampire Killers * Casablanca * Roma * Charade * Bringing Up Baby * To Kill a Mockingbird * The Desk Set * Sideways * Omega Man * Lost in Translation * Amelie * Harvey * Our Man Flint * Where Eagles Dare * Klute * Castaway (Roeg) * Walkabout * Don't Look Now * Bad Timing * The Devils * Women in Love * Dante's Inferno * They Shoot Horses, Don't They? * La Dolce Vita * It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World * The Russians Are Coming * Blade Runner * No Way To Treat A Lady * Alien * His Girl Friday * Groundhog Day * Ice Storm * Dr Strangelove * The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind * The Man Who Would Be King * Andromeda Strain * Solaris (2002) * Magnolia * Rosalid Russell * Frances McDormand * Nicolas Roeg * Ian Bannen * Javier Bardem * Judy Dench * Christopher Walken * Richard Harris * Walter Matthau * Bill Murray * Paul Mazursky * Peter O'Toole * James Coburn * Alan Pakula * Lee Marvin * Cary Grant * Kate Hepburn * Spencer Tracy * Audrey Hepburn * Marcello, dahling * Phillipe Noiret * David Mamet * Billy Wilder * John Cassavetes * Seymour Cassel * Sergio Leone * Mike Nichols * Oliver Reed * Tom Wilkinson * Chris Cooper * Ken Russell * Sidney Lumet * Lee Marvin * Jane Campion * Sam Peckinpah * Sydney Pollack * Norman Jewison * Philip Seymour Hoffman * Peter Cook * Robert Altman * Richard Benjamin * John Frankenheimer * Wes Anderson * PT Anderson * John Ford * Jim Broadbent * Howard Hawks * Alfred Hitchcock * The Coen Brothers * Fritz Lang...more.

Television:

Jon Stewart * Gilmore Girls * Myth Busters * Junkyard Wars (Brit version)* Slings & Arrows * Dead Like Me * Mad Men * HR Pufnstuf * Ocean-going documentaries that give me the strongly-held, if fleeting, conviction that I missed my calling in the sciences and should, in fact, have been a marine biologist.

Books:

As in all things, something funny, something black. Something lyrical, passionate and sexy...Like the Taunton Fine Woodworking series, for example. (Here's a sketchy, thoughtless few: Alberto Manguel (esp The City of Words) * Alfred Döblin * Italo Calvino * Kurt Vonnegut * Flannery O'Conner * William Faulkner * Donald Barthelme * Jim Thompson * Charles Lieurance * Raymond Chandler * Edith Wharton * Zadie Smith * Raymond Carver * Michael Ondaatje * Louis de Bernier * Rick Moodie * Umberto Eco * Philip Gourevitch * Samuel Beckett * James Joyce * William Trevor * JP Donleavy * Joan Didion * JK Huysmans (and his unidentified translator for Dover) * Theodore Roethke * Dave O'Meara * Philip Schultz * Ken Babstock * Lawrence Ferlinghetti * Charles Olsen * ee cummings * Wallace Stevens...
O friend of my scribbled life
your heart is like mine —
your loneliness
will bring you home
- Leonard Cohen

Heroes:

My parents. No, really. C'mon now, I mean it.Or maybe Trixie Beldon.Or a funny muse.Or un homme tombreuse.

My Blog

Stuff White People Like

Stuff White People Like: The ListSo I was just sitting around this evening, glueing Lacoste labels onto my 70s Sally-Ann wrap dresses and reading about the ridiculously (if you've a friend who has it)...
Posted by Ms. Es on Fri, 07 Mar 2008 12:23:00 PST

ON THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS JANE SIBERRY...

...m'thinks "Issa" would do better to revamp her sense of humour than her fucking handle. Have you ever seen "Issa" live, outdoors say, for free I might add, whilst wandering by on your way ...
Posted by Ms. Es on Mon, 10 Dec 2007 08:23:00 PST